The C. P. Snow Lecture Series

Fall 2014 Speaker

Alan Lightman

Professor of the Practice of the Humanities in the departments of Creative Writing and Physicsat theMassachusetts Institute of Technology

At the Crossroads of Art and Science

Friday, November 7, 2014, 7pm
Textor 102

Free and open to the public.

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Dylan Schoch at 607-274-3102 or dschoch@ithaca.edu. We ask that requests for accommodations be made as soon as possible.

About the Speaker

As both a distinguished physicist, philosopher of science, and accomplished novelist, Lightman bridges the sciences and the humanities. He was the first professor at MIT to receive a joint appointment in the sciences and the humanities. His essay "In the Name of Love?" was the first article about love and language published in Nature, the prestigious international science journal (October 8, 2001), and his "The First Law of Thermodynamics" was the first short story published in the physics journal Physics Today (May 2005). He has lectured at more than 100 universities nationwide about the similarities and differences in the ways that scientists and artists view the world. In his scientific work, Lightman has made fundamental contributions to the theory of astrophysical processes under conditions of extreme temperatures and densities. Lightman has also been interested in science education and the philosophy of science. His work in science studies and in science education has been published in The American Scholar, The Physics Teacher, Science, Science and Children, The Science Teacher, and Social Studies of Science. Lightman's novel Einstein's Dreams was an international bestseller and has been translated into thirty languages.